ARIEL Castro, the prime suspect in the Cleveland kidnappings, has emerged as a Jekyll-and-Hyde figure, a musician who tinkered with cars but also allegedly abused his wife and children for years.

It is not yet clear what kind of a hold he had over his victims, who told police they left the house just twice in 10 years and both times Castro shuffled them into his garage using disguises that included wigs.

But after interviewing the three victims and the three brothers police determined they were not involved.

Castro was the scion of a large family that had migrated after World War II from Yauco, a part of Puerto Rico famous for its coffee, to Cleveland, then an industrial powerhouse on Lake Erie.

His father, Nona Castro, who died in 2004, ran a used car lot, while his uncle Julio "Cesi" Castro, 78, has been a pillar of the city's Hispanic community with the Caribe Grocery corner store he still runs.

Ramsey recalled seeing Castro in the back yard playing with his dogs. On his Facebook page, Castro's likes include "We Love Chinese Cresteds" - and tinkering with cars and motorcycles.

Julio Castro, however, said his nephew pulled away from his extended family after his father's death in 2004 - the year DeJesus went missing, a year after Berry disappeared, and two years after Knight was last seen.

"Perhaps he was the type of person who was living two lives," he told CNN's Spanish-language channel.

In 2005, Castro's ex-wife Grimilda Figueroa, who died last year, alleged in a family court filing that Castro "frequently abducts" the couple's two daughters Emily and Arlene "and keeps them from (their) mother".

The same filing said Figueroa had suffered two broken noses, broken ribs, a knocked-out tooth, two dislocated shoulders and a blood clot in the brain, and demanded that a judge "keep (Castro) from threatening to kill" her.

The couple's son Anthony Castro, 31, a banker in Cincinnati, Ohio, told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper on Tuesday that his mother moved herself and the three children out of the house in 1996 after years of violent abuse.

"I was beaten as well," he said. "We were never really close because of that and it was also something we never really talked about."

There is no indication that Castro was charged for domestic violence.

Ironically, Figueroa's second husband Fernando Colon was questioned in 2004 by FBI agents in connection with the disappearance of Berry and DeJesus, the Fox television affiliate in Cleveland reported.

That same year, Castro testified against Colon when the security guard was tried, convicted and listed as a sex offender after he was indicted for molesting Castro's two daughters. Colon plans to appeal that conviction.

For 22 years, Castro drove school buses, but not without a number of incidents that ultimately led to his firing in November 2012, the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reported.

In 2004, he left a special-education pupil alone in a parked bus while he grabbed a hamburger. In 2009, he was suspended for an illegal U-turn. In 2012, he improperly used a bus to go shopping, earning a second suspension.

The final straw came last year when he walked away from his vehicle at an elementary school two blocks from his home for a couple of hours "to rest," according to school board records.

After hours, Castro played bass guitar - on his Facebook page he recently posted a photo of a custom-made six-string bass - with a popular local Latino band, Grupo Kanon, on and off for 15 years, the Plain Dealer reported.

"He could do the job, but he became increasingly defensive and unreliable in recent years," said band leader Ivan Ruiz, who knew Castro for about 20 years. "It was like he couldn't leave the house."

Anthony Castro said he spoke to his father only a few times a year, and that whenever he visited the house at 2207 Seymour Avenue, it was never for more than 20 minutes - and even then he was barred from some of its rooms.

Real estate websites say the 133 square metre "colonial" style house, typical of the neighbourhood, was built in 1890, with four bedrooms, one bathroom, a garage and a basement.

When Castro was arrested, the house - with an estimated market value of about $US105,000 ($A103,760.07) - was in foreclosure for non-payment of property taxes.

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Comments on this story

Scott of Melbourne Posted at 1:35 PM May 09, 2013

I have a sickening feeling this is just one of many houses to emerge in the local area. Feeling like a syndicate was operating, each covering each others alibis.

Comment 1 of 2

PB of Sydney Posted at 11:55 AM May 09, 2013

I am waiting for the NRA to come out and say, "if the girls had been armed, this wouldn't have happened".
Gaol for life in the mainstream section, seems the answer for this gentleman.

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